Falling Into Darkness
by Kogarashi
Summary: Plagued by nightmares and dogged by uneasy flashes of almost-memory, Sonic fights to keep himself whole. PG just in case. Might go up for violence. A/U
1. Disclaimer

Disclaimers  
  
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First off, I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of the other characters from the cartoons/anime, comics, and games. Original characters are mine, as are the ideas used in this fic and the fic itself. Please don't sue; I'm a broke college student.  
  
My Sonic fics are influenced mainly by the games and the Saturday morning cartoon (the one related to the Archie comics). I also draw some information/characters/etc. from summaries and descriptions of the Fleetway comics, the Archie comics themselves, and the anime. Thus, some things might not fit your own perception of the series, considering how many varied sources there are. So here's an explanation for my fics, so you know where I'm coming from and where I'm going with this.  
  
Ages: Sonic and Sally are 16, like in the SatAM cartoon. Bunnie is 17, Antoine is 19, Tails and Amy are both 8 (as per the comics and games). Cream the Rabbit is 6 like in the new anime, Sonic X. Knuckles is also 16, like in Sonic X, rather than 15 like the comics.  
  
Origins: With the exceptions of some AU fics, the past history of Sonic and the Knothole Freedom Fighters follows, for the most part, the SatAM cartoon. Knuckles, on the other hand, I'm drawing from what I've heard of the Fleetway comics. Others made as I see fit.  
  
Enemies: Unless I have a reason for using game-version Eggman, I'm using Robotnik from the SatAM cartoon, because I believe he made the creepiest, scariest villain. Snively is also included. Metal Sonic might be making an appearance, as might Metal Knuckles and Tails Doll (once I figure out what the doll does). Silver Sonic (a la Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Genesis) might show up, or at least be referenced. Robots might be referenced as badniks, but will usually be SWATbots and roboticized Mobians. The Dark Legion from the Archie Knuckles comics won't make an appearance at all, since I know nothing about them and prefer to leave them out of things. Rouge will most likely show up at some point, and Shadow probably will as well. Naugus will ownly show up if I deem it necessary.  
  
World: To the best of my abilities, I will be writing in Mobius, not Earth. I have a map from the Archie comics to help me with some locations, and will make the rest up as I go.  
  
Personalities: Sonic will be a mix of the SatAM Sonic and the games Sonic, serious at times and impatient, full of humor and wisecracking. Tails will be the budding genius from the Sonic Adventure games and Sonic X. Robotnik, as stated, will be from the SatAM cartoon, big and creepy and mean. Knuckles will be something of a mix between the games and what I can manage from descriptions from Fleetway, a loner and girl-shy, yet loyal to his friends (and easily tricked).  
  
Other: I'm including chao in my fics, since they're included in the more recent games and in Sonic X. Yes, this means Sonic will have his own chao to play with. I'm working with evolutionary pathways available in the Sonic Adventure and Sonic Advance games, which means more than likely some chao will show up with animal parts. Alignment will be based as much off of location as off of who is raising him, thus there will be plenty of neutral chao and possibly even one or two dark chao in Knothole Village. There will be interaction with the chao. There will also probably be chao racing and chao karate.  
  
Comments and constructive criticism are welcome. Flames for the sake of flaming will be used to roast marshmallows.  
  
Happy reading, and take care.  
  
~ Kogarashi 


	2. Chapter 1: Remember

Falling Into Darkness 

Chapter 1: Remember

_-----_

_A streak of blue through the darkened alleys, stirring up a cloud of dust behind it._

_Running._

_Racing ahead of the souped-up 'bots with their high-power jets and well-oiled joints._

_Keeping ahead...and laughing._

_Scarlet sneakers barely touched the pavement of the city's streets, only wavering in the slightest to change direction.  The blue streak followed an erratic, zigzag path, avoiding gun- and laser-fire, leaping trash and low barricades easily._

_A patrol 'bot burst into the alley ahead, guns raised, blocking the exit.  The blue streak turned at a sharp angle as the 'bot opened fire.  Through another alley he ran, out into the open thoroughfare, where more 'bots and several spy-eyes joined the chase._

_He whooped in pure exhilaration as he zipped down the wide road into the scrap fields.  Some of the 'bots shot a viscous green ooze at him; he dodged easily and put on speed._

_He was near the gate between the scrap yards and the first of the factory docks.  Would he make it through this time?_

_Green ooze struck his feet—right on time, part of his mind thought dryly, irrationally—and his pace immediately slowed.  He struggled, like always, to pull his feet onward, but it felt like running in cement shoes.  His legs were sluggish, each step labored._

_He could feel the stiff gusts of engine heat on the back of his neck, stirring the blue head spines, the red laser pinpointing between his shoulders, and knew it would end like it always did.  Even so, he still reached, stretching, for the gate.  It moved away from his frantic, gloved fingers._

_Fingers that, as he watched in mute horror, slowly turned into metal._

Remember....

_Jointed metal, spreading into his arms, stiffening and gleaming._

Return....

_Engulfing his body, spreading upward from metal feet and downward from metal spines, blue-black and silver and tan.  Reflecting the lights of the factories above._

Become....

_Enclosing his heart and mind in a robotic shell, until it encapsulated and assimilated them into one metallic, jointed whole._

...Remember....

-----

A/N:  I'll keep author's notes to the end of chapters.  ^_^  Here's the first.  Hope you like it.  More up soon, once I finish chapter 2.


	3. Chapter 2: Mission

Falling Into Darkness 

Chapter 2: Mission

_-----_

Sonic jerked upright in his bed, cold sweat running down his face and through his quills in rivulets.  His narrow shoulders shook with the remnants of the nightmare.

Not again....

He threw the covers off and climbed out of bed, stalking over to the mirror to look at himself.  Dark circles under his eyes, limp spines, drooping eyelids....  He wasn't getting enough sleep lately, not with these recurring nightmares.  He wiped the sweat away with a cloth and ran his fingers through his spines.

"Why?" he murmured.  "Why a 'bot?  There isn't any way Robuttnik would get me in that machine...."

He sat in the desk chair and drummed his fingers on the varnished surface of the vanity.  At this rate, he'd go insane from lack of sleep before Robotnik could hatch another plan...which was saying a lot.

A tiny paw touched his knee, and he looked down at one of his chao.  Ember looked back up at him, its little pink halo bobbing over its rounded head.  It blinked large eyes at him.  "Chao?"

Sonic reached down to pat Ember's head.  "It's nothing, kid.  Bad dreams."

Ember's eyes closed in contentment at the attention.  "Chao...." it gurgled, rocking a bit in place, cooing.  Sonic smiled softly.  It was always comforting in a strange way, playing with chao.  No wonder Cream hung around them so much.

After a while, Ember yawned, and Sonic gathered the white and pink chao into his thin arms and carried it back over to the chao bed, where Frost—another haloed chao, white and blue—slept peacefully with its thumb tucked in its mouth.  Sonic settled Ember among the warm blankets and covered them both, then flopped back on his bed.  Ember had managed to drive thoughts of the nightmare out of Sonic's mind, and it was not long before Sonic slept again, dreamlessly.

* * *

"Sonic!"

Pounding.

Sonic rolled over and pulled the blanket over his head.

"Sonic!"

More pounding.

Sonic added his pillow to the pile on his head and wished his hearing wasn't so sharp.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, you lazy bum!  Wake up and let me in!"

"Nnngh...."  Sonic uncovered his head and glanced blearily over at the door to his house—just visible through the open bedroom door.  It rattled again as Sally's fist hit it.

"Sonic, I'm warning you!"

The blue hedgehog stumbled groggily out of bed, blinking sleep from his eyes.  "I'm coming, I'm coming.  Hold your horses, Sal."  Ember and Frost sat on the floor of the main room, looking up at the door with puzzled expressions at the tone in Sally's voice.  A toy car lay on the floor between them.  Sonic grumbled as the princess hammered on the door with her fist again, and pulled it open, blinking against the sunlight.  "Yeah?"

Sally stood on the porch, tiny hands on her hips, frowning.  A gentle breeze stirred her short red hair, and her blue eyes had that no-nonsense look about them.  One booted foot tapped out a staccato beat on the wood planking.

Sonic didn't even flinch.  He was too used to her moods by now to be fazed.  "What is it, Sal?"

"Sonic, do you know what _time_ it is?"

Sonic shook his head.

"It's three in the afternoon!  What have you been doing sleeping all day?"

"All day?  Really?"  Sonic blinked up at the sky.  Yep, all day.  The sun was in an afternoon position above the towering treetops of the Great Forest.  "Oh.  Haven't been sleeping well."

Sally frowned, but she didn't roll her eyes or sigh or even scold him.  "The nightmares again?"

Sonic nodded slowly.  "Same exact ones.  Same exact result."

Now Sally sighed.  Right on time.  "Sonic, they're just dreams."

Sonic made a face and headed back into his house to get breakfast.  "Yeah, well they do a pretty good job waking me up at all hours of the night, Sal."  He fished through his cupboards for a moment before hauling out a bag of cold cereal and a fairly clean bowl.

Sally followed him into the bungalow without invitation.  She didn't need it, really.  She was—usually—welcome at Sonic's place.  They were childhood friends, after all.  She sat in one of the kitchen chairs and watched as Sonic dumped dry cereal flakes into the bowl and splashed milk over them.  Ember and Frost toddled over to beg for food, and Sonic paused long enough to hand them each a fruit from the bowl on the counter.  They sat where they were and munched on it.  Sonic walked over to the table and sat, propping his bare feet up on a nearby chair.

Sally drummed her fingers absently on the tabletop, quietly.  She wasn't the type to annoy someone with loud finger-tapping the way Sonic was.  Habit, for both of them.

"Well," she said conversationally, though with a very faint hint of worry to her voice that few—Sonic among them—could regularly catch, "at least it can't be a premonition of some new device Robotnik's building."

"No," agreed Sonic, ruefully, "premonitions are Amy's forte.  But I tell ya, Sal, it felt real enough.  Very real."

"Sonic...."  Her voice had that tone of a mother trying to correct an over-imaginative child.  "That's ridiculous.  Robotnik could never build a machine capable of roboticizing Mobians from that far away.  It's just not possible."

"Just as impossible as a universal harmonizer to return robot-people to normal again?" Sonic countered with a raised eyebrow.

Sally pursed her lips.  "It takes too much power, turning people into robots.  It's much easier returning something to it's natural state in cases like this.  The body's already trying to fix the problem itself, but can't."

"Because it's a robot."  Sonic spooned cereal into his mouth.  "We've been over this a hundred times.  But I know what I saw in my dreams.  It's scary enough, even if it couldn't happen."

"Fine, I'll grant you that.  But you still can't go sleeping in all afternoon, Sonic.  We need you at meetings, for plans."

Sonic's eyebrow lifted again.  "You got a mission planned?"

Sally sat up a bit straighter.  "You'd know if you'd been at this morning's meeting...."

Sonic shrugged indifferently.

Sally sighed in exasperation.  "I'm planning on sending a team to Robotropolis, yes.  Assignments are on the board in the meeting hall, in case you care."

Sonic smirked and finished his cereal.  Walking back to the sink, he absently patted Frost on the head and sloshed water about in the bowl, dumping it on the drying rack to drip-dry.  Sally made a face at his bachelor's habits, but didn't say anything.  It was useless anyway.

Instead, she stood.  "Well, I need to get over to Rotor's place.  He and Tails have been working on the prototype harmonizer."

Sonic tossed a grin over his shoulder as he handed the two chao more fruit.  "I'll be by later.  Gonna go for a run first."

Sally allowed herself a smile and left.

With his bowl reasonably washed and the cereal put away, Sonic went back to his room to collect his red sneakers and a fresh pair of white gloves.  He paused at the mirror to run a comb through his quills, slicking them back into their usual order.  He hauled on his sneakers and went back out into the main room, whistling quickly.  Ember and Frost came toddling over, arms outstretched, begging to be picked up.  Sonic picked them both up, cuddling them for a quick second before carrying them out of his hut.

Villagers waved cheerfully to him as he walked down the path between huts toward the garden, not far from the ring pool.  He nodded back, his arms too full to wave, and kept walking.  Almost at the end of the village, Ember squirmed, and Sonic set the chao down on the ground so it could walk behind him.

Outside the village, a low stone fence encircled a small meadow, a wooden arch in the fence marking the entrance.  A shallow stream ran through the meadow, collecting in a pond at one end before trickling out the other side.  A few fruit trees stood in one spot, young chao napping under them.  Cream sat in the center of a circle of chao in the middle of the open meadow, singing songs with them.  Her high voice blended with the chao voices nicely.  The young rabbit glanced up when Sonic and his chao entered the garden, and waved them over.  Cheese, Cream's chao, hopped next to her, squealing in joy.

Sonic set Frost down and led it and Ember over to the circle, grinning at Cream.

"Going somewhere, Sonic?" Cream asked cheerfully.

"How'd you guess?"

"'Cause you always bring Ember and Frost here when you're going to be away for a while."  Cream stood and bowed politely to the two haloed chao.  Ember and Frost looked at her for a moment before echoing her bow.

Sonic rubbed the back of his neck and smirked.  "I'm going out for a run, and Sal might have a mission for me.  These two'll be better off with you taking care of them."  He watched as his chao ran toward the pond with a few of the other chao, all of them giggling.

"I'll do my best!"

"Thanks Cream."  Sonic ruffled her hair, then turned and, with a wave, left the garden in a cloud of dust.

* * *

It was late evening when Sonic returned to Knothole Village, feeling much refreshed after his high-speed run.  A few laps around the Great Forest always did him good, though lately Tails hadn't been able to join him for the run.  The young kitsune was busy working with Rotor on the harmonizer prototype, which, Sonic had to admit, was more important than an evening run with the Freedom Fighters' fastest member.

The villagers of Knothole had settled in for the evening by the time Sonic walked over the river bridge and through the wooden gates.  A few sat on their porches talking, but most were inside with their dinners or after-dinner activities, warm amber light filling each window.  Sonic's keen hearing caught children's laughter in a few houses, and he smiled to know that children could still find fun amidst a war for survival.  This late into the evening, Cream probably had the chao gathered in their sleep-shelter, and was probably home for dinner with her adoptive mother.  Sonic decided against a quick peek-in at his chao—if they saw him, they'd never let him go to the meeting hall, and he really needed to—and instead headed for the village's biggest building.

Lamps were lit inside the wooden structure, and Sonic noticed a few of the Freedom Fighters—Sally included—gathered around one of the tables.  Among the group were Tails and Rotor.  Nicole, Sally's handheld computer, was projecting a diagram of the harmonizer into the center of the table.  The Freedom Fighters looked up when Sonic walked in, the soles of his sneakers tapping quietly against the plank floor as he walked over to the table.  If there was one thing the hedgehog could do well aside from run and sleep, it was walk quietly.

"Glad you could make it, Sonic," Sally said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.  "Please, have a seat."

Sonic sat between Bunnie and Sally and stared at the diagram as Rotor continued a description of the device.  Sonic had heard it several times already and thus let his attention wander, one finger absently tapping against the tabletop.  The other Freedom Fighters—with the decided exception of Antoine, but he was always the exception—ignored the noise.  It wasn't disruptive.  Yet.

Then the diagram zoomed in to a detailed section, filled with wires and gears.  Sonic sat up straighter, sensing they were getting to the reason for the discussion about the harmonizer.

He was right.

"We're missing some vital parts," Sally said, pointing with a small metal rod at a rather empty-looking—for a machine built by Rotor and Tails—spot in the diagram.  "While we _could_ make these parts ourselves from scrap metal from the junkyards, they wouldn't work quite the same as parts from Robotnik's roboticizer."

"That's what this mission is for then, right Sal?"  Sonic leaned his chin against one of his hands.

"Yes, that's exactly what this mission is for.  We need roboticizer parts.  Rotor made a list for us of what to get."  Sally glanced over at the slate board hanging on the wall not far away, chalk writing on it dividing Freedom Fighters into groups.  "Rotor, Tails, and I are science recon.  We'll have the schematics, and Rotor will be the one directing those who are going to the main roboticizer room.  Bunnie, Kris, you two will be pulling parts.  Antoine and Blake will be lookout.  Sonic—"

"I'm distraction again, got it."  Sonic grinned.

"Yes, distraction.  We will synchronize our watches when we get to Robotropolis.  Everyone will meet at the rendezvous point at the set time.  If anyone's late, we leave them to get out on their own."

"Or send me to get them," Sonic piped up.

"If you're not too busy."  Sally closed Nicole and clipped the computer back to her boot.  "Now, if everyone's ready, we'll head out.  Grab a quick dinner from the community kitchen if you still need it and meet at the ring pool in fifteen minutes.  Don't be late."  That said, she stood and nodded to the others, then left the meeting hall.

Sonic didn't wait for anyone else—especially Antoine—to say anything.  He jogged out of the hall in Sally's wake and then sprinted over to his place, pulling a chilidog from his icebox.  Muttering an apology to the chilidog for not heating it first, he ate it quickly and ran back out in the direction of the ring pool.

The ring pool was a smallish pond offset from Knothole village by a grove of trees.  It was bordered on three sides by high rock outcroppings, but the fourth side of the pool lapped against a sloping shore.  A wood dock had been built out over the water, so that the Freedom Fighters could be close enough when a ring rose from the mechanism beneath the water.  The machine had been designed by Sonic's Uncle Chuck to produce power rings, stronger than those that appeared randomly throughout Mobius, that only Sonic could use.

Sally, Tails, and Rotor stood there, waiting.  Tails held a backpack for the ring that should be coming out of the water at any moment.  The kitsune's twin tails flicked nervously—this would be Tails' first mission as a Freedom Fighter, young as he was.

Tails waved energetically as Sonic walked up to the dock.  "Hi Sonic!"

Sonic grinned and walked across to Tails, careful to stay as close to the center of the wood planking as possible.  He couldn't swim, and while he could hold his breath for impressive amounts of time, now was not a good time to go for a long dunking in the deep-ish pool.  When he reached Tails' side, Sonic ruffled the boy's hair and took the backpack to put it on.  "Tails, my man.  How're you feeling?"

"Great!" the boy said, though his voice shook.

Sonic leaned in close and whispered in the fox's ear, "It's all right to be scared, Li'l Bro.  We all are."

Tails hesitated a moment, but put on a brave face then and stood straight.

Sally looked over the edge of the dock into the water.  "Here it comes, Tails.  Ready?"

"Ready, Aunt Sally."  As the water at the end of the dock began to bubble, Tails twisted his two tails together and set them spinning like helicopter blades, lifting him from the wood of the dock.  He flew out over the water, just as a shining gold ring rose from the froth and foam, and snatched it out of the air to bring back and put in Sonic's backpack.  The rest of the Freedom Fighters assigned to the mission came through the trees as they clipped the backpack shut and slid it onto Sonic's thin shoulders.

Sonic stood next to Sally as she lifted her hands for attention.  "Okay, people.  You know the signals.  Let's get going."

The Freedom Fighters took off into the trees, Sonic bringing up the rear for now.  His speed could take him to the front easily, but something held him back.  Something...he couldn't quite place his finger on.

_Remember...._

He whipped around, glancing uneasily around the clearing and the ring pool.  That whisper....  It had sounded like the voice was right behind him, but no one was there.  And something else was wrong about it.  Very wrong.

It took him a moment to realize what.

The voice whispering to him...was his own.

His heart beating faster, even for him, he turned and hurried after the other Freedom Fighters.

-----

A/N:  So yeah, first, in case you haven't noticed, chapter lengths are going to fluctuate.  They'll be as long or as short as I see fit.  Also, in case you haven't noticed, I'm taking a few liberties with how things work on Mobius.  It's part of my whole melding of continuities for a Sonic Universe I like.  ::shrug::  So yes, there is the ring pool at Knothole, but it's not the only source of power rings on my Mobius.  It just produces more powerful rings, but fewer of them, and only Sonic can use them, like in the SatAM cartoon.  Also, I'm making up names for some Freedom Fighters, as I don't know any beyond those that showed up in the SatAM cartoon, really.  ::shrug::  Oh, and yes, Chaos Emeralds are (probably) going to show up in this world too.  Um, yeah.  Review?  Onegai?


	4. Chapter 3: Return

Falling Into Darkness 

Chapter 3: Return

_-----_

"Sonic, do you read me?"

Tails' young voice crackled over the headset Sonic wore.  The blue hedgehog lounged on a support beam in the skeletal beginnings of yet another factory, watching SWATbots marching smartly below.  The aerial patrols hadn't noticed him yet, but then his blue quills helped him to blend into shadows fairly well.

"Read ya loud and clear, Li'l Bro," Sonic replied, tapping one foot.

"Good.  Aunt Sally wants me to tell you that the others are almost in place, and we'll need you to go to work soon."  Mumbled comments in the background followed Tails' voice through the headset, though Sonic couldn't quite make out what Sally was saying to Rotor.  Oh well.  If they wanted him to know, they'd tell him.

"What's the scoop on the 'bots, Bro?" Sonic asked instead.

A pause.  "Two ground patrols marching in the construction area, but you should be able to see them easily.  Three aerial patrols, sectors three, four, and six.  Um...."  Another pause.  "One has megamuck guns."

"No problemo, Li'l Bro.  I'm too fast for them."

"Okay."

Sally's voice came on the line.  "Sonic, Bunnie and Kris are in position.  We need you to lead the SWATbots around through the scrap yards and into the north factory area, to keep them away from the roboticizer.  Signal if you need help.  Blake says he can provide some distraction too."

"More than some," came the soft drawl over the headset.  "Though it means leaving Ant alone on lookout."

"I can handle myself," retorted the coyote.

"Whatever, Ant.  Call if you need it, Sonic."

"Can-do, Blake."  Sonic grinned, even if the silver-blue bat couldn't see it.  "Well, then, should I draw the fire for Bunnie and Kris?"

"Good luck, Sonic," Sally's voice said.

Sonic allowed himself a smile, then hopped supports down to the ground.  Picking up a hefty rock, he flung it at the head of one of the patrolling SWATbots.  "Yo, SWATbutt!  Over here!"  The robot, along with its four fellows, turned to stare at the blue hedgehog standing beside one of the steel girders of the construction project.

"Priority One: Hedgehog," buzzed one of the 'bots.  "Capture."

Sonic smiled a large, toothy grin.  "Has anyone told you lately that you're ugly?  Well, you're ugly."  He revved up his legs as the SWATbots began to approach, their blasters raised.  As the first shot rang out, Sonic sped past the bots and down the construction road, kicking up dust.  Soon, the aerial patrols picked up his trail as well and followed in pursuit.

Sonic raced through the mazelike alleyways, scarlet sneakers barely touching the pavement.  He laughed as a few of the newer robot models joined in the chase, their high-power engines better at keeping pace with Sonic than the SWATbots.  Their lasers fired at the blue streak Sonic left behind him, hitting afterimages instead of the actual hedgehog.  Sonic followed a zigzagging path, leaping obstacles with ease as the 'bots tried to keep up.  The blue hedgehog allowed himself just a bit more power to give the 'bots a run for their money, though he wasn't even pushing full, un-enhanced speed yet.  He wasn't even close to breaking the sound barrier, and he could do that without a power ring.

Another high-power 'bot, this one a walker-type, burst into the alleyway ahead of him, guns blazing.  Sonic quickly made a sharp turn, just barely avoiding having his quills singed off.  He whistled at the close call, but wasn't worried.  Close calls happened, and only served to give him an adrenaline rush.

Yet another 'bot darted in and blocked the exit to this alley, forcing Sonic to turn and race out onto the main thoroughfare that ran through Robotropolis.  The scrap yards were just ahead; the 'bots were doing a nice job of following the blue blur away from the sector surrounding the roboticizer building.  Sonic smirked.

Through the headset, he could hear reports of the others' progress, listen to Rotor directing Bunnie and Kris to which parts they needed to steal.  Occasionally, the walrus let Tails relay messages to either the pair collecting parts or to the coyote and bat on lookout.  They left Sonic to his work.

A few of the aerial 'bots ducked in low, guns spouting megamuck at Sonic.  He laughed and dodged easily, flipping around for a bit on the straightaway to run backwards and taunt his pursuers.  It didn't have much affect, since they were programmed to be emotionless, but if Robotnik was watching then Sonic always enjoyed the chance to flaunt his freedom at the dictator.

When one of the new, ultra-fast jet-bots joined the chase, Sonic was forced to turn and face the correct direction and pour on speed.  If he could just get into the northern factory region, the larger jet-bot would have a difficult time keeping up without clipping its wings on the sides of buildings.  Briefly, Sonic blessed his small size, before dodging to the side to avoid another splatter of megamuck.

The gate between the scrap yards and the factories was just up ahead, closed as Sonic expected it to be.  No matter.  The hedgehog could somersault under it no problem.

He almost stumbled as he suddenly realized the whole scenario was disturbingly familiar.  He'd dreamed this exact scene just the night before.  Cursing his overactive mind and the night haunts, he crossed his fingers, praying it wouldn't end up like his dream, stuck to his knees in megamuck and slowly turning robot.

The gate drew closer, and he forced his mind away from thoughts of being trapped, focusing entirely upon reaching the maze of the factory alleys.  Megamuck splattered on the ground not far from the red blur of his shoes, a small drop of it hitting his foot and causing it to stick to the ground briefly.  He stumbled for a breath, then caught himself and forced his sneaker to separate from the pavement and continue.  He churned his legs faster, close to sonic speed, and ducked and rolled at the last second to propel himself under the gate.

Clear.  He was clear, actually in the factory region.  He allowed himself a laugh of satisfaction and victory over his nightmares, before starting into a run again as more patrol bots swarmed in.  With a wild whoop, he raced into the thick of the factory maze, taunting 'bots all the way.

He was close to the center when he felt the first energy ripple pass through his body.  His stomach lurched and he stumbled again, catching himself from falling.  Something felt very, very wrong.  He'd felt this energy before, when he'd used it to fight one of Robotnik's larger schemes.

Chaos energy.

But it was different.  Channeled, filtered, the energy was wrong.  More entropic than usual.  And it made Sonic's insides churn.

Another wave passed through him.  He stumbled again, pitching forward, and barely managed to get a hand on the ground to propel himself into a roll to save himself some injuries.  Then he was back on his feet, but he wasn't going nearly as fast as he should have been able to .

Very wrong.

Something was changing inside him.  Not the change of his body adapting to super form, something different.  A shift.

_Remember...._

He tried to ignore the voice in the back of his mind, his voice, but not.  Forced his feet onward.  Strove to keep his part of the mission.

The voices in his headset went on as though nothing was wrong, guiding the mission as planned.

Another ripple.

Sonic stumbled yet again, then fell, rolling ungainly across the harsh asphalt and concrete to land in a messy heap of mussed blue quills and red sneakers.  The straps of his backpack broke mid-fall, sending the bag flying.  His limbs were trembling now, covered in scrapes and bruises from the tumble.  They didn't support his weight very well as he struggled to his knees, attempting to stand.  His legs gave out, just as the stomach clenches settled in.

This was worse than his dreams.  He'd left the 'bots behind a while back, but at this rate, they'd find him no problem and he'd be perfect fodder for Robotnik's roboticizer.  He couldn't let them do that, couldn't let himself be taken.  Just not possible.

A fourth ripple.

A sharp stabbing pain to his stomach caused him to double over, eyes wide in painful shock, mouth open and gasping for air.  He braced himself against the ground with his hands.

_Return...._

Hands that, as he watched in mute horror, began to split the white gloves and slowly turn to metal.

He tried to scramble backwards, as if to escape his own hands and their transformation.  His limbs wouldn't respond anymore.

It spread, covering his wrists and starting up his arms.  Jointed metal, robotic appendages.

"No...."  His voice managed a rasped whisper, horror-struck.

A fifth ripple.

Pain in his feet caused him to look down.  Nothing visible yet, but his feet felt stiffer.  Afraid to look, yet afraid not to, Sonic fumbled his sneakers off.

It was happening to his feet too.

He managed to scramble backwards this time, until he found himself backed up against a wall, his quills bent out of shape by the force with which he pressed himself against the metal paneling.

"No...."

The 'bots would find him.  They would find him and have him and, with his headset, know what was going on and where to find the others.  It would cut off his connection to the rest, but there was no other choice.  He pulled his headset from his ears and smashed it against the ground.  Once.  Twice.  Scattering pieces of metal and plastic and wiring across the cement.  He was alone.

Alone, with his body changing.  Becoming something...else.

"No...."

No use.  It spread, up his arms and legs, through his muscle and bone, forming flesh and blood into hard metal.  He closed his eyes, willing it to be a nightmare.  Willing himself to wake up in his own home with Ember and Frost, and Sally banging on the door.  With chilidogs in the icebox and meetings to attend and friends to joke around with.

Willing it to end.

_Become...._

And knowing it wouldn't.

-----

A/N:  Only one section to this installment.  It ended in a good enough spot that I didn't need to go on.  ^_^  Yes, I'm evil, but you all know cliffhangers keep you coming back right?  ::halo::

To a couple of my wonderful reviewers:

**Shade:**  Well, Shadow doesn't fit in this one, but I'll include him in another one that I'm planning.  ^_^  Hope you'll keep reading anyway.

**RedFox:**  Well, I went and read yours, out of curiosity and also 'cause I saw it on Orin's favorite stories list.  ^_^  Yes, similar beginning, but that seems to be about it.  You'll see how things go.

**Formerly Known As:**  For some reason your review isn't showing up on my reviews list, but oh well.  ::shrug::  Thanks for the compliment.  I think part of the reason I _can_ write like this is 'cause I'm an English major with emphasis on editing and creative writing, so I'm basically training myself to be a writer.  ::shrug::  But thank you!

**everyone who reviewed:**  Thank you all muchly for the reviews so far!  I would've continued even without reviews, but you guys give it that extra perk that makes me feel good and lets me know someone besides me cares enough about the story.  ::huggles everyone::  Arigatou!


	5. Chapter 4: Missing

Falling Into Darkness 

Chapter 4: Missing

_-----_

Sally wiped her brow with a cloth before looking over her copy of the checklist.  "Rotor, what's the status on your list?"

"We've got everything, Sally."  The walrus grinned.  "Now we just need to get home."

Sally smiled, then adjusted the microphone on her headset.  "Bunnie, Kris, pull out.  You got everything we need.  Meet at the rendezvous point."  She glanced up just as Tails was relaying the same message to Antoine and Blake.  The young fox looked at the princess.

"Should we notify Sonic too, Aunt Sally?"

Sally nodded and spoke again.  "Sonic, the mission is complete.  Report to the rendezvous point if possible."  She paused.  "Sonic?  Sonic, do you read me?"

Her response was the faint crackle of static.

Rotor noticed her worried look.  "Something wrong, Sally?"

"Sonic's not answering my call."

"Maybe he's busy?"  Rotor rolled up his item list and stood.

"Maybe.  But I'm getting static."

Rotor shrugged.  "He can take care of himself, Sally.  He's Sonic.  Let's go to the rendezvous point."

Sally nodded slowly and let the boys ahead of her.  _Sonic, where are you?_

Everyone but Sonic was waiting by what used to be one of Mobotropolis' many parks.  Bunnie and Kris each had a pack with parts—small, so Robotnik wouldn't notice them missing for a while—slung over their shoulders.  Antoine and Blake also waited, the bat perched atop a stone pillar, his coloring hiding him against the metal wall the cracked pillar stood beside.  Blake's large ears were perked to listen for sounds.  His eyes scanned the sky, his eyesight rather good compared to that of his small animal cousins.  Sally whistled a soft birdcall, and Blake glided down quickly to join the others.

"Sonic's not here?" Sally asked, looking around, half expecting the blue hedgehog to come tearing in at any second with a sheepish grin on his face.

Blake shook his head.  "No sign of him.  No radio call either.  Do you want me to go look for him?"

"You said those who did not apport 'ere would be left behind," Antoine protested.

"_Re_port, Twan," Bunnie corrected absently.

"I know, Antoine," Sally replied softly.  "But he should at least answer his radio.  Blake, if you would please.  Radio back at the slightest sign of trouble."

Blake nodded solemnly and turned to disappear into shadows.  Sally turned to the rest.  "There's nothing else we can do, except go back to Knothole and wait."

Tails blinked.  "We're not going to wait for Sonic?"

"It's too dangerous, Tails.  The most we can do is wait in Knothole.  I'll keep in touch with Blake, so don't worry.  He'll find out what's keeping Sonic busy.  Now, let's head out."

The Freedom Fighters nodded and turned toward the shadowed streets that would lead them out of Robotropolis.  Sally hung behind a bit, glancing in the direction Blake had disappeared, hoping.

"Princess?" Blake's voice crackled over her communit.  "Which way did you send Sonic?"

"Through the scrap yards toward the factories," Sally replied.  "Why?"

"Just checking to make sure I'm going the right direction.  I'll let you know if I find anything, Princess.  Now head home."  She could almost hear his grin over the comm.

"Good luck, Blake."

* * *

Blake closed his silver eyes for a moment, letting his ears look for him.  While he had remarkably good eyesight, especially for a bat-like Mobian, his hearing was infinitely better.  He clung to the side of a factory, just under an overhang that shadowed him enough to hide him.  He could hear 'bots putting around inside the factory, and pushed his hearing further, hoping for some sound, some clue to Sonic's whereabouts.

But there was nothing.  Patrolling drones, clicking and grinding machinery, even the soft susurrus of clouds of pollution from the chimneys.  But nothing that sounded like Sonic was involved.  No sounds of chase, no robots being torn through by Sonic's infamous Spin Dash.  Blake frowned.  Where could Sonic be?

He opened his eyes and looked around to make sure there were no bots in the area, that would spot him, before letting go of the wall and gliding onward.  When he turned a corner, he noticed a splash of green on the pavement and dropped down to investigate.  Megamuck.  Slopped in a zigzagging pattern on the ground.  Blake jogged along, following the trail deeper into the nest of factories.

And then the trail ended.  Blake cursed softly, and looked around for more clues.  This was apparently where Sonic lost the 'bots, but there were several routes the hedgehog could've taken and no sign as to which was the right one.  Gritting his teeth, Blake chose one at random and ran down it.  So Sonic hadn't been trapped in the megamuck; that at least was good.  But was he hurt somewhere?  Trapped?  Unconscious?

The bat's chosen route brought him near a factory where there was more activity going on than elsewhere in the sector.  A strange, pulsing humming noise met Blake's sensitive ears, coupled with an unusual feeling in his stomach.  Frowning, he approached the factory and climbed up the wall to a high ventilation grate.  Prying the cover off and letting it hang, he slipped into the factory and crawled along the ventilation ducts.  _No dust in here...this must be used fairly often.  I wonder...._

He reached the end of the duct and peered down through a grate into a rather large room.  From this angle, he couldn't see much, but directly below him were a few vats filled with bubbling, green liquid.  From the smell, gas fires heated the vats, and a few 'bots—none of them former-Mobian workerbots, Blake noted—stirred the boiling chemicals.  Blake frowned and backed up a bit, then turned down a branching pipe to another grate.  From here, he could make out some kind of complex machinery with pipes and tubes and wires everywhere.  'Bots fed chemicals into one end of the machine, and out the other end came—

Chaos emeralds.

Very tiny ones, barely the size of the diamonds ladies liked to wear in jewelry, but they were obviously chaos emeralds.  Their varied color and the way they pulsed with energy gave it away.  Blake had seen a couple of emeralds before, when Sonic had had to go super to fight one of Robotnik's schemes, but these looked...sick.  Somehow.  If chaos emeralds could be sick, which Blake figured they very well could be, considering some of the powers they had.

Sally should be told about this.  But when Blake tried to connect to her with his comm, he discovered that the building's structure fractured the signal.  Backtracking, he made his way outside and radioed Sally while perched on the side of the building.

"Blake?"  The radio still crackled, but at least he could get a hold of her out here.

"Sally, I found something."

"Is it Sonic?"  Her voice was distinctly worried.

"No, not yet.  Still looking for him.  But I found a factory where it looks like Robotnik is manufacturing tiny chaos emeralds."

"What?  Just great, just _great_.  Just what we need right now."

"I'll let you handle that then.  I can't do anything to sabotage it right now, and you want me to find Sonic."

"Yes, go find Sonic."  A pause.  "Thank you for the information, Blake.  We'll think of something."

"Roger.  Blake out."  He glanced over his shoulder down the ventilation duct again, before turning to search the factory area once more.

Mid-turn, something caught his eye.

Over in a shadowy area, almost out of sight, was a tiny patch of red.  Frowning, curious, Blake looked around again and then glided over and dropped to the ground.

It was Sonic's sneakers.  Near them lay a pair of torn, white gloves, and further on, Sonic's backpack.  The bag had fallen open, and the power ring lay even further beyond.

_Sonic would never go anywhere without his sneakers or his power ring...._  Blake walked over and examined the bag, found it scuffed and torn more than it had been earlier.  The shoulder straps were broken.  He frowned deeper.  It looked, judging from where the backpack and power ring lay, as though Sonic had fallen, and the backpack thrown from him.  But...what could make Sonic fall?  There was no megamuck around.  Indeed, not a single sign of one of Robotnik's robots.

Pieces of plastic and wiring scattered the ground not far from the sneakers, and Blake barely recognized them as the remains of Sonic's headset.  Whatever had happened, Sonic's communit was now broken.  That would explain the lack of an answer when Sally had radioed the hedgehog.

Shaking his head slowly, Blake gathered the power ring, the sneakers, and the torn gloves into the backpack and held it all in one clenched fist.  There was still no sign of the hedgehog himself, but the evidence didn't bode well.  The bat looked around for a moment, considered his options, then resignedly ducked into the shadows and radioed Sally once more.

"Sonic is missing."

* * *

"Status report, Snively."

The tiny man ducked his head, scrunching his shoulders as though to ward off a blow, and studied one of the monitors in front of him.  "No sign of the hedgehog, sir," he wheezed in his squeaky voice.  "Patrols lost him in sector 7-G of the north factories.  They're currently sweeping the area for signs of him."

"They'd better find him," the large figure sitting behind him in the command chair growled.  "For your sake."

"Y-y-y-yes s-sir...."  Snively tapped a few keys.

"And how is our little..._project_ doing?"

"Production is at seventy-seven percent, sir.  There are slight complications with one of the chemicals in the mixing process, but the solidification is running smoothly.  Our test results show the manufactured gems to have the same properties as the real chaos emeralds."

Gloved fingers drummed on an armrest of the command chair.  "Good.  Have the drones continue production and work out the problems with the chemicals.  I want to have a nice power supply from this."

"Yes sir."

"You are keeping the workerbots away from the project, correct Snively?"

"Y-yes s-sir."

"Good.  We don't want the pulses from our emeralds to undo the roboticization."

"Yes sir."

Glowing red eyes watched Snively from the shadows surrounding the command chair.  "Any indication as to why the hedgehog is in the city?"

"No sir.  No disturbances in the city.  All systems functioning properly."

The large figure made a thoughtful noise, his rather pointy, bald head catching the light as he leaned forward out of the shadows.  The hand that wasn't currently tapping on the armrest of his chair toyed with his mustache.  "Scan again.  The hedgehog never comes here without a reason."

"Y-yes sir."  Snively tapped more keys.

Robotnik leaned back into the shadows again and watched his nephew.  "The hedgehog had a reason...."

A commotion outside the control room brought his attention around to the door.  He could hear the two SWATbots standing outside the door protesting the arrival of another robot—one of the workerbots?—but no response.  He frowned.  He hadn't summoned any robots....

Then a loud crash echoed in the hall, followed by a second, and the door slid open slowly.  In the shadowed hallway stood a short robot, metallic parts glinting despite the darkness.  Red eyes, not unlike those of the Metallix robot Robotnik had built not too long ago, flashed.  Robotnik frowned.  It was the size of one of the Mobian workerbots, or of one of his hedgehog robots, but he hadn't built a hedgehog 'bot recently.

It stepped slowly into the room, and Robotnik's frown deepened in recognition.  Somewhat angry recognition, and a bit of consternation as to how one of the units could be here now.

It was indeed a hedgehog.  Sleek, sharp spines arched back from its head and body.  Large feet equipped with small jets, and large hands and forearms that housed a laser and a limited computer interface, connected to a thin body via flexible metallic arms and legs.  Its eyes stared blankly ahead at nothing, its face—usually able, to Robotnik's recollection, to show some very small emotion—matching with a deadpan look.  Beyond, in the hallway, Robotnik could barely make out the remains of the two SWATbots.

Snively gasped.  "S-s-s-sir...that's...."

"Shut up, Snively."  Robotnik rose from his chair and approached the hedgehog robot, still frowning.  The robot didn't move.  "Robot, state your identification."

A monotone voice, somewhat digital but still vaguely recognizable to the two Overlanders, responded, "SA-3."

Snively looked decidedly confused.

Robotnik toyed with his mustache some more.  "State your orders."

The robot paused a moment.  Then, "Upon activation, report to central control for full programming.  Do not allow detainment."

Robotnik began to chuckle.  "Oh, this is good.  This is very _good_."

Snively hadn't moved from his seat.  "S-sir?"

But Robotnik didn't bother to answer.  "SA-3, report to lab five-three-six and await debriefing and programming."

Slowly, his expression still blank and lifeless, Sonic the Hedgehog obeyed.

-----

A/N:  ::waits for the lynch mob to find her::  Ok, how many of you are ready to kill me now?  ^.^;;;;

Anyway, I should have some fanart for this fic up at ah-kaziya.deviantart.com soon.  In the meanwhile, go check out my gallery?  Onegai?

And as I said at the end of the previous chapter, Shadow doesn't work very well in this fic, but don't worry Knux fans, Knuckles **will** be in it.  Eventually.  ^_^;


	6. Chapter 5: Become

Falling Into Darkness 

Chapter 5: Become

_-----_

_Darkness...._

_He floated, suspended above a sea of inky water, wrapped in and supported by threads of shadowy thought.  They twined around his legs, his arms, his neck, threading through his quills and holding him above the water._

_He did not know how long he'd been here, how long he would continue to dangle above an inky sea that never rippled, never moved, never reflected any light because there was no light in this dark void.  He had no measurement of time here.  No sunrises, no timepieces, not even any sounds beyond his own soft breathing and the occasional drip as a droplet of black water slid down his damp quills and landed below him.  Not even the drying of his quills could tell him how much time had passed, for his quills never dried.  Always damp, they continued to drip intermittently.  He tried to count seconds by the dripping, and kept losing count somewhere around three minutes._

_He couldn't move, either.  The threads that held him up also held him bound, trapping him in midair within the void._

_Sound drifted through the cavernous blackness, fading into being and then disappearing just as quickly._

"...where have you been...."

_A deep voice.  One that sent shivers down his spine.  He tried to move, to find the source of the voice and swing at it, but the threads pulled taut and held him immobile._

_Silence enveloped him for another eternity._

"...s-sir, I mean, can you be sure...."

_A whiny voice this time.  He struggled again, attempted to move, to break free, to seek out the owner of the voice and do...something.  He wasn't sure._

_It didn't matter anyway, because he could no more move now than he could before.  With a soft sigh, he closed his eyes against the vast dark sea beneath the vast dark sky.  If he was going to be forced to see nothing, he would prefer it to be on his own terms._

_Another eternity of silence._

"...new orders are to find the prin...."

_He barely moved at the sound of the deep voice this time._

_A hiss, his own voice, echoed through the blackness._

"Become...."_  Emptiness followed in its wake._

_He hung there and listened to the silence._

* * *

Blake found Sally sitting on the dock over the ring pool, holding Sonic's broken backpack.  The hedgehog's sneakers were still in the bag, though the power ring and the torn gloves were both disposed of—the first back into the waters of the pool, the second into the trash.  The princess looked out at the water of the pool, watching the softly flickering light of the ring generator far down in its depths.  Her shoulders moved in an even rhythm, as though she were trying to calm her breathing.

"Princess?" the silver-blue bat asked softly.

Sally jerked around at his voice, blinking furiously.  "Yes, Blake?"

"The others are ready for the rescue mission.  We're waiting for you."

She nodded and stood.  "Go ahead, Blake.  I'll be with you in a second."

He bowed slightly and turned, walking back across the dock and through the bushes to where the Freedom Fighters assigned to this mission waited.  Sally took a deep breath and looked down at the backpack in her hands quickly before slipping it on.

When Sonic hadn't returned, even that morning, Sally had grown worried.  He had never failed to show up at Knothole again, even if he didn't have his sneakers anymore.  Something was seriously wrong.  As quickly as she could, she had rounded up a group of Freedom Fighters to organize a rescue mission.

These Freedom Fighters now waited in a small clearing beyond the ring pool, checking their equipment one last time.  Rotor and Tails weren't among the group, since their mechanical knowledge wasn't important and Tails was still too young to work on a rescue mission.  Instead, they were staying behind to work on the harmonizer.  Antoine was also staying at Knothole, on guard duty tonight.  Bunnie, Blake, Kris, and an opossum named Hank were accompanying Sally to Robotropolis tonight.

In Sally's opinion, it took far too long to reach the city that night.  They crouched under an overhang in a cramped alley as they set their watches and Sally assigned them directions through the streets.  They double-checked their communits, secured pouches of balloons filled with a substance not unlike megamuck to their belts, and were sent off by Sally with an admonition to radio immediately for help if anything should go wrong.  Sally herself took off in the same direction she had sent Sonic the previous night.

She bypassed the scrap yards by cutting through a series of narrow, rusting drainage pipes, and emerged in an empty holding tank somewhere above the factories.  Looking around cautiously for patrol 'bots, she slid down the narrow ladder to the ground below and took off through the towering buildings and smokestacks spewing filth into the sky.  She could still see traces of megamuck stuck in patches on the ground, just as Blake had described, outlining Sonic's path into the heart of the factory region.  And, just as Blake had mentioned, the trail cut off at an intersection.

She pressed the button on her comm and hid in the shadows as she hissed Blake's name.

"Yes, Sally?" his voice crackled over the headset.

"Which way did you go when the trail ran out?"

"Third alley from the left, the one framed by the pair of dumpsters."

"Thanks."  With another look around, Sally jogged down the chosen route.

She soon came across one of the large tanker drones hauling a container marked as chemicals towards a busy factory.  Various robots bustled about outside, carrying tanks of chemicals into the building, and metal crates of something back out.  Not a single workerbot was in sight, which confused Sally.  Robotnik usually forced the roboticized Mobians to do his factory work.  Frowning, she ran toward the factory, keeping to the shadows.  None of the 'bots noticed her.

An uneasy, slightly nauseated feeling began to grow in the pit of her stomach as she crouched against the wall of the factory, looking for a way in.  She rubbed at her stomach a bit, willing the unsettled feeling to leave, and found a ground-level ventilation shaft which she pried the cover off of.  Crawling in, she pulled the cover back on behind her.

Not far ahead, she found a grate blocking off an exit onto the floor of a large room.  Vats sat lined up along one wall, pipes leading into and out of them, and a large, many-wired machine sat against another wall with a conveyer belt attached.  Sally's eyes widened as she realized this was the room Blake had described, where Robotnik was manufacturing his own chaos emeralds.  Sally could see them falling into metal crates stacked at the end of the conveyer.  Even in here, there were no workerbots.

The feeling in her stomach was beginning to make her sick, so she backtracked down the vent and, after a look around, out into the open.  She quickly immersed herself in the shadows again, looking around to get her bearings before heading in the direction Blake had found Sonic's things.  She hitched the battered backpack onto her shoulders a bit further.

Just out of sight of the factory producing emeralds, where Sally could see the scattered remains of Sonic's communit, Sally crouched in the shadows and radioed the others.  "Status report."

Bunnie's and Hank's voices answered first, announcing themselves somewhere in the vicinity of the Roboticizer.  Blake answered next, prowling the fringes of another factory region.  Kris was last to answer.

"I'm just entering the scrap yards, Sally.  Heading your way."

"Any luck yet?"

"Not yet.  Not a single blessed sign of Son—_eep!_"  With a squeal, the communication cut.

"Kris?  _Kris?_  What happened?"

"One of 'Buttnik's hedgehog 'bots!" the raccoon squeaked into the microphone, along with the sound of feet running and what sounded like jets behind her.  Sally blinked.  _Another_ hedgehog?  Sonic had put all the others out of commission....

"I'm coming, Kris.  Hold on!"

"Hurry, Sally!  It's fast!"

Sally muttered a small curse and took off through the alleys, heading back toward the scrap yards as fast as her feet would carry her.  She hoped Kris could hold out long enough for help to arrive.  They couldn't lose another Freedom Fighter.  They _couldn't_!

Sally reached the barrier between the factories and the scrap yards sooner than she thought.  She slid under the gate—it was too high to jump over—and started between piles of twisted metal and spare parts.  Her booted feet drummed the ground, her vest flapping in the breeze she created.  She could hear ahead occasional crashing sounds, most likely from the pursuit, and over both the distance and the communit the sound of Kris's terrified cries.  Sally frowned and pushed herself harder, wishing she had Sonic's speed.

She skidded around a corner just in time to see the hedgehog robot swing and send Kris flying into a pile of old tires.  It advanced slowly toward the fallen raccoon, one of its robotic hands flexing sharpened claws.  Sally shook her head furiously and flung one of her goo-filled balloons at the 'bot.

It missed by a mile, but it drew the robot's attention.  Metallic blue quills reflecting the lights that illuminated sections of the scrap yards—Robotnik always chose blue, as though it would mock Sonic—it turned slowly to regard the squirrel with glowing red-in-black eyes.  Sally gasped.  The way it stood, the way it was built, the way it moved...it couldn't be.

It started slowly toward her, but she could only stare at its features.  Blue metal for quills, tan for arms and stomach.  Feet that, for a robot, seemed bare.  Quills that sloped backwards in a streamlined form.  It couldn't be.

A digitized voice issued from the 'bot then, a voice almost recognizable to the princess.  "Priority One: Princess Sally," it said in a monotone.  "Orders: capture and bring to Robotnik."

Priority _One_?  Sally couldn't help but wonder at that.  _Sonic_ was Priority One to the robots.

Then, with a scream, she dodged as the hedgehog robot suddenly lunged at her, claws outstretched.  Sally rolled to the side, coming up quickly as it wheeled.  Jet blasts of air from the undersides of its feet allowed it to move swiftly and smoothly, almost like running.  Almost as fast as....

It _couldn't_ be.

It came wheeling back, and Sally quickly flung another balloon at it as she rolled out of the way again, running toward Kris.  "Kris!  Are you okay?"

Kris sat up slowly, holding her head.  "I think so, Sally."  At the sight of the 'bot, she screamed again and scrambled behind the pile of tires, pulling out one of her own balloons—one of the ones that hadn't broken inside the pouch yet.  She flung it at the bot, but like Sally's balloons, the 'bot dodged it easily and continued after the princess.  The contents of the balloon splattered and smeared down the side of a large dumpster.

Sally dove behind a pile of metal braces and pulled out one of her balloons, throwing it at the hedgehog.  It missed wildly, landing with Kris's balloon on the dumpster.  Sally rolled out of the way as the hedgehog swung at her and missed again.  She came up with her last two balloons in her hands, watching the hedgehog warily.

It didn't give her much time to think, pushing with its jets to rush up to her and reach for her hands.  She smeared the balloons on the robot's head, one of them covering one of its eyes.  Her hand slipped and slid along one of the 'bot's razor-sharp quills, slicing it open along the palm.  With a cry, she barely ducked and rolled backward as the 'bot reached for her again.

She crouched now, out of ammunition, in front of a heap of broken SWATbot parts, clutching her bleeding hand to her chest.  It was over.  None of their balloons had slowed it down at all.  It was as good at dodging weapons as..._no_.  There was nothing to do now but wait.

With a yell, a silver-blue shape suddenly hurtled at the robot from above Sally, sending it flying backwards with a kick to its chest.  Blake landed in front of Sally, crouching, frowning at the robot which staggered back to its feet and glared—if robots could glare—back at the bat.  Blake's reflexes were good enough that as the hedgehog took another high-speed lunge at him, he met it with his foot and kicked it into the wall smeared with sticky goo.  The robot stuck fast, struggling against the muck, as Blake turned quickly to Sally.

"You all right, Sally?"

She nodded quickly and looked over in Kris's direction.  "We need to go."

Kris scrambled over as Blake cocked an eyebrow.  "What about looking for Sonic?"

Sally shook her head, not allowing herself to look over the bat's shoulder at the still-struggling robot.  "Back to Knothole.  We'll discuss it there."

Blake shrugged and helped her to her feet, quickly wrapping her hand in a spare bandage from his med kit before hurrying with her and Kris out of the scrap yards.  Sally radioed Bunnie and Hank and told them to head straight for Knothole and not to wait for anyone.  They made all speed through the forest to their village, Sally's mind running over what had happened the entire time.

In Knothole, many villagers—both Freedom Fighters and civilians—crowded outside the meeting hall, waiting for the rescue party's return and news.  Reluctantly, Sally climbed the stairs to the hall's porch and turned to address the curious crowd.  Almost immediately, one of the civilians—a bear—raised a hand and called out, "Where's Sonic?"

Sally shook her head slowly.  "The mission was unsuccessful tonight.  We ran into some problems..." she raised her hands and staved off questions, "and I'm currently working on new plans."

"What sort of problems?" shouted a goldfinch.

"A...a robot.  A hedgehog robot."

"I thought Robotnik stopped building those?" asked a hare.

"He has.  It...it was...."  Sally took a deep breath.

"Well?"

She braced herself and looked up at the villagers with a sad look in her blue eyes.  "He was roboticized."

"What?"  The crowd murmured.  Sally fought back a tear and raised her hand for silence.

It was hard to force the words out, but she managed.

Somehow.

"Sonic the Hedgehog is...no longer a Freedom Fighter."

  


-----

A/N:  Ok, so how many of you were drooling in anticipation for this chapter?  ::crickets chirp::  Eheh....  ^_^;;

Sorry it took so long.  I was at Anime Expo (convention photos eventually will be up at **theanimeposse.tripod.com**), and then I got home and had work and unpacking and tiredness galore....  ::bows::  Gomen nasai.  Though to warn you, it could be anywhere upwards of a month between chapters, depending on how busy I am.  I've got a bunch of art projects, work, cleaning, etc. to do, as well as a few other side projects (my webmanga, an RM2K game, etc.) that are in various stages of production.  And, come September, classwork will come first, followed by work.  But I'll keep writing this, don't worry.  It's fun, and you guys are nice.  Seriously.

Enough babbling.

I'll get the next chapter up when I can.  If I can get Zak (new character/personal demon) to stop pestering me long enough to let me write.  ^_^;;;

Keep watching for Sonic fanart at **ah-kaziya.deviantart.com**!


	7. Chapter 6: Questions

Falling Into Darkness 

Chapter 6: Questions

_-----_

Red and yellow shoes tapped softly on the grassy ground outside the stone arch, white-gloved hands drumming an uneven rhythm on part of the low wall.  The gentle breeze, belying the mood around the village, stirred long red spines around narrow shoulders.  Violet eyes watched the squirrel sitting over by the pond with a pair of haloed chao.

"You'd probably better go in to talk to her, Mr. Echidna," Cream the Rabbit said politely next to him.  Her chao, Cheese, bobbed in agreement next to her.  "She's been in there all morning, and probably won't come out for a while."

"Hn."  Knuckles didn't look at the young rabbit, though judging from Princess Sally's posture—cuddling with the two chao, but slumped as though grieving—the little girl was right.  With a barely audible sigh, he stepped through the arch and into Knothole's chao garden.

The reason for his reluctance to enter came running over with a grin on its face before the Guardian had taken three steps.  Purple horns like a jester's cap and oversized wings looked as though to overbalance the little chao as it latched onto the echidna's leg and began to snuggle.  Cream, who had followed Knuckles into the garden, giggled in spite of herself.  "It looks like Angel likes you, Mr. Echidna."

Knuckles sighed and dislodged the flying chao from his knee, settling it against his hip instead.  It wouldn't do any good to put the chao back on the ground.  It would just tackle his feet again, or maybe go for his tail, and both options were far more irritating than simply carrying the chao.  How this chao, who rarely saw the Guardian when the echidna was actually _in_ Knothole rather than Angel Island, had become this attached to Knuckles was beyond him.

The chao, Angel, gurgled and gave him a small hug and then a thumbs up, and Knuckles couldn't help but smile...just a little.  He had to admit, the chao was rather adorable.  He had a soft spot for young, cute, vulnerable things.  So he carried the little chao over to the pond where the princess sat.

"Princess," he said softly, stopping a few paces behind her.

She didn't look up, though he saw her hand go as though to wipe tears away.  He politely ignored it.  "Thank you for coming, Knuckles.  I take it the message reached you just fine?"

"Yes, though I am wondering why you asked me here.  You don't, usually."

"I know."  Knuckles wasn't a Freedom Fighter, he was the Guardian of the Master Emerald and caretaker of Angel Island, the legendary floating island Sonic and Tails had stumbled across some time ago.  Knuckles rarely, if ever, concerned himself with the affairs of the Freedom Fighters, usually only getting involved when what they were fighting threatened his home as well.  Occasionally, if Sally asked, he would come to Knothole.

There was silence for a few moments, before Knuckles sat next to Sally.  He still held Angel, who cuddled in his lap and promptly fell asleep.  Glancing over at the princess, he noticed the chao she sat with were hugging her more than she was hugging them, though they both looked rather upset.  It took him a moment to recognize Sonic's fighting and swimming chao, and blinked in surprise, quickly suppressed.  If Sonic's chao were here, comforting Princess Sally....

"It has to do with Sonic, doesn't it?"

Sally nodded slowly and pulled one of Sonic's chao into her lap.  "We...on a mission the other night...we lost him."

Knuckles raised an eyebrow.  "'Lost' him?"

"Robotnik turned him into a robot."

Knuckles frowned slightly, but otherwise showed no emotion at that revelation.  "How did it happen?  Did Robotnik capture him?"

Sally shook her head.  "Blake went looking for him afterward.  He said there weren't any signs of capture."

"How can Blake be sure?"

"Because he found Sonic's things.  His shoes, his backpack, his gloves—they were torn, Knuckles.  If Robotnik caught Sonic, there wouldn't be anything left behind."

"Are you so sure of that, Princess?"

"Sonic's power ring was still there.  Robotnik wouldn't leave a power ring behind."

Knuckles didn't answer.  Instead, he looked out over the pond at a group of chao-children and one or two higher evolved forms tumbling over each other in a wrestling match.  Their lives were so carefree, Knuckles almost envied them.  Almost.  While he didn't necessarily enjoy his responsibilities as the Guardian of Angel Island, they _were_ his, his and no other's.  And the Freedom Fighters' lives were no more carefree than his, with the menace of Robotnik always looming over them, driving them to fight or die.  Chao were lucky sometimes.

"So."  The sound of his own voice speaking surprised him; he hadn't really thought to ask Sally anything yet.  "Why exactly did you call me here?"

Sally took a deep breath.  "I want you to go to Robotropolis—"

"No."

"I need someone who can manage a solo run to do reconnaissance—"

"No."

"And you're the only one besides S...Sonic who can hold your own—"

"I thought I told you no."

She looked up at him then, and he tried to hide his small flinch at her expression.  Just sad enough, just red-eyed enough, that he knew she'd be devastated if he went back to Angel Island without at least trying to help.  He never was very good with girls.  Didn't know what to do with them half the time.  And when they pulled the sad-face routine on him, intentional or not....  With a sigh, he set Angel in a curled purple ball to his side and stood.  "Just some reconnaissance.  Nothing more.  No rescue attempts."

Sally only nodded and whispered, "Thank you."

With a short, sharp, "Hn," Knuckles left the garden.

* * *

Knuckles the Echidna crouched against a wall in the shadows, watching the patrol 'bots below making their rounds.  He wrinkled his nose at the acrid stench of pollution hanging thickly in the air in Robotropolis, and blinked a few times to clear his eyes.  He hated it here, hated it more than anything else in the world, even more than being bested by the blue hedgehog.

When the air was clear of patrol 'bots, he crawled along the wall a few meters before taking to the air to glide over to a scrap pile and drop behind it.  He landed in a patch of greasy blackness, and lifted his black-smeared gloves to inspect it.  Soot and oil.  It covered the metal scraps in a caked mess, and smelled of burnt fuel and char.  He hurried away from the odorous pile and ran down zigzagging narrow alleyways toward the area Sally had told him were the scrap heaps.  This was where they'd fought the robotic hedgehog.  It didn't take him long at all to locate the scene of the small battle; the caked, gooey, half-dried remnants of the Freedom Fighters' homemade megamuck still lay in patches on the ground, on the scraps, and in a larger mass on the side of a large dumpster.  The vague, sticky imprint of a robot was still embedded in the goo.

Knuckles frowned and began to thread his way between piles of garbage and towering slagheaps, eyes open and searching about intently for anything the Princess might need.  His trail brought him to the other end of the scrap yards, and he quickly scaled the wall of a factory there to continue along the rooftops.  Sounds of robotic feet on the asphalt below made him pause and duck into the shadows, peering over the edge of the factory to look.

Below, walking slowly down the street and looking to either side, was a hedgehog robot.  Not just any hedgehog robot—Knuckles would be able to identify Robotnik's previous creations on sight—but a dark blue one, lean and long-quilled, that moved with an easy grace Knuckles knew.  There was no doubt, the thing below him was Sonic.  Knuckles frowned.  Though the 'bot appeared to be unarmed, the Guardian knew very well that the forearms of the thing could hide a wide arsenal of weaponry.  It wouldn't be the first time Robotnik had hidden lasers and gas bombs in small spaces.

The 'bot that had once been Sonic shifted its gaze upward, as though it felt Knuckles watching it, and the echidna quickly ducked out of sight before he could be spotted.  After a few tense moments, he heard the robot clank onward.

Knuckles continued across the rooftops, in the direction opposite his former sometimes-ally, his mind working over what he'd just seen.  How could the hedgehog go and get himself roboticized like that?  But...according to Blake's reports, Sonic's gear had been found halfway across Robotropolis from the Roboticizer, with no signs of megamuck and indications that Robotnik had not captured him there.  Knuckles knew Sonic would never have willingly gone to his roboticization while leaving everything he was carrying—including a power ring—behind.  Had he been under mind-control, he would not have left things behind, and would even have picked up items he had dropped.

And then there were the reports, both Blake's and Sally's, of a sickening energy and small, manufactured chaos emeralds not far from where Sonic's things had been found.  And no roboticized Mobians anywhere near the factory.

Another frown crossed Knuckles' face as he continued onward.  It just didn't make sense; the pieces, the clues, didn't fit together.  A Mobian, who'd had no problems previously using the power of chaos emeralds, had disappeared not far from a factory making emeralds, leaving his personal effects behind, and had been discovered later as a robot.

Perhaps Sir Charles could shed some light on the subject.  He _was_ the Freedom Fighters' spy in Robotropolis, after all.

Wheeling about, Knuckles ran back along the rooftops toward the scrap yards, his feet coming close to blurring as he pushed himself to full speed.  He was almost as fast as Sonic's average speed.  Almost.  Sonic could still best him in a race, though Knuckles at least was the better fighter, and unlike Sonic could glide.  The two were evenly matched in their differences.

He dropped down to the scrap yards again and ran among the mountains of trash, following a circuitous route to Sir Charles' hideaway.  He made sure to keep an eye out for patrols, especially the hedgehog, and threaded his way to a particular heap near the scrapped remains of demolished robots.  He picked up a discarded pipe and banged a quick pattern against another pipe, one sticking out of the heap in front of him, then waited.  After a few moments with no response, he banged again, and got the same results.  Sir Charles must've been at work then.

Knuckles turned and started heading through the scrap yards toward one of the many exits, with the intent of continuing his reconnaissance.  A stiff wind started up, stirring his long spines and blowing loose, light trash across the packed dirt ground.  Several heaps away from Charles' hideout, a fluttering noise caught Knuckles' attention, and he turned in the direction it was coming from.

He found the source of the sound not far from one of the exits, a sheet of something thin and clear, barely sticking out of a metal crate beneath a pile of scrapped parts to the SWATbots' flying vehicles.  Knuckles tried to pull the plasfilm—for that's what it was, the thin, plastic material that Robotnik and, occasionally, the Freedom Fighters, used in place of paper or bark—from the crate, and couldn't.  The weight of the scraps on top of it was too much.  With a soft curse and frown, he began to shift the scraps from off of the plasfilm.  After several moments of heaving and lifting and tossing, he had the crate cleared enough to pull the sheet, and several others, out.  Plasfilm sheets, quite obviously blueprints and schematics, were rarely thrown out by Robotnik when they could be filed much easier for later reference.

Knuckles examined the sheets closely, his frown deepening with each one he looked over.  They were indeed schematics, and their content had Knuckles almost ready to curse.  He glanced into the crate after he'd read over the last sheet, and noticed, but couldn't reach, a gleaming, metal quill.  Allowing himself to show his emotion, just a bit, here in this secluded place, he punched the side of a nearby dumpster.  Then, shoving the vehicle parts over the crate again, he rolled up the plasfilm sheets and took off for the city limits.  What he'd found was sure to be more than enough for Princess Sally.

It certainly raised enough questions in him.

-----

A/N:  And, after much delay, here is your next installment of Falling Into Darkness.  ^_^  Oooh, the plot thickens (and Knuckles gets a chao following him).  And for anyone who might start screaming at me about my portrayal of Knuckles, let me explain.

The most exposure I had to him when I started writing this was one episode of Sonic X, as few scans from the Archie comics, the Sonic & Knuckles/Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles game(s) for the Sega Genesis, Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2 for the Dreamcast, SA2: Battle for the Gamecube (which is essentially, for all intents and purposes, the same as SA2 for Dreamcast), and ROMs of Sonic Advance and Sonic Advance 2 for a GBA emulator (because I wanted to see what the games are like, but am currently too poor to purchase a GBA, though I plan to get one when I finally get a Gamecube).

I've since gotten Sonic Shuffle (though since it's dub-only, I don't trust Knux's personality in it for fanfic purposes), seen the second Sonic X episode he's been in, and have purchased a lot of Sonic the Hedgehog comics from Archie to fuel an old obsession.  I've also heard a bit about Knux's personality from other artists and fanfic writers online, from the Fleetway comics.  The Knux of my fics, especially this one, is more along the lines of Sonic X Knux, Sonic Adventure (and SA2) Knux, and a bit of Archie Knux (without Julie-Su and the Chaotix).  So to me, he's rather aloof, grudgingly respects (and easily disrespects/is annoyed by) Sonic, and isn't the best with girls.  In fact, in SA2 and from what I've heard from some other people, he seems rather girl-shy.  So mine is.  Oh, and he's still very gullible, if you work it right.

Anyway, enough rambling, ne?

Oh, I figured why Shadow doesn't work in this, for anyone who cares.  This takes place sometime before the first Sonic Adventure game (or it's adaptation, as the case would be with the world of this fic), so Shadow's still in stasis at this point in time.

Thanks for all the reviews to the previous chapter, and I hope you all keep reading!  ^_^  And to blizzard4, all will be explained in due time.  Just keep reading.  ~_^

Keep watching for Sonic fanart at **ah-kaziya.deviantart.com**!


	8. Chapter 7: Answers

Falling Into Darkness 

Chapter 7: Answers

_-----_

"Curse that hedgehog!"

Robotnik slammed his robotic fist into the console in front of him, glaring at the readout on the monitors.  Snively cowered in his seat, shaking so much that the few hairs he had left on his head quivered like the antennae of a strange insect, and cold sweat trickled down his neck and long, beaky nose.

After a few moments, the evil dictator leaned back in his chair.  "Snively, dispose of this..._useless_ information," he growled, gesturing impatiently at the data.  "Then bring me the results of the latest tests.  There are answers I need, and you and that hedgehog have disappointed me enough already."

"Y-y-yes s-sir," wheezed Robotnik's diminutive assistant, before punching in the codes to delete the screens' current readout and bring up the test results.  Robotnik frowned as he read over averaged speeds, aerodynamics and element resistances, and combat statistics for the SA-3 robot unit.

While his eyes seemed to follow the displays of numbers and charts and graphs, his mind worked again over the latest infuriation the hedgehog had caused.  Fourteen years...fourteen years missing, apparently eleven of those fourteen as a Freedom Fighter, and _still_ he did not contain any information on the rebels or their hideout!  The insufferable hedgehog didn't even have information on how he had ended up in a flesh form!  Robotnik's fingers clenched on the armrest of his chair, twitching to hit something again, but the console before him was already cracked and would soon need repairs...just like every other console for the past eleven years.

"Sir," Snively's high-pitched voice cut in.  "SA-3 has performed exceptionally well on all tests, including the chemical bath and water courses.  It is showing no signs of corrosion or wear due to age, and adapts cleanly to its environments.  Why is this the only unit you have of this series?"

"You do not question me, Snively," Robotnik ordered through clenched teeth, and the little man blanched.  "My research on this line of hedgehog robots was interrupted by 'King' Acorn's agenda during the war, and when I returned to the lab, the robots had been destroyed and the recorded schematics disappeared.  Somehow, _somehow_, this unit survived."  Robotnik's frown deepened to another glare, directed at the diagrams they had drafted so far of the robot.  "And I intend to find out how and why.  Now, set up another course.  Use those robots we discarded last year, the duplicates."

"Y-yes sir."

Robotnik's glare altered to an almost malicious smile.  "Let's see how he holds up against his former comrades."

* * *

Crickets chirped merrily outside the meeting hall, oblivious to the grave mood that had settled within the wooden walls.  The Freedom Fighters sat around their meeting table, all eyes on the figure of the princess at the table's head, who gestured to a map of Robotropolis and the surrounding area as she spoke.  Nicole, open on the table beside Sally, projected the three-dimensional map and various diagrams above the surface of the polished wood, altering perspective at Sally's requests.

"Now, if we follow these duct routes here, using Griff's maps of the subterranean tunnels of the city, we can get fairly close to the emerald factory undetected."  Sally gestured along a pipeline to the factory region where Sonic had disappeared.  "The two teams sent there will do their best to sabotage the production of the fake emeralds.  I don't know how much power they have, but any power is too much to allow Robotnik.  Rotor has some new explosives to try on the machinery, as well as a data scrambler to take out the computer systems there."  She nodded briefly to Blake and Dylan the Porcupine, then at Tails, who sat between her and Rotor.  "Thanks to Blake's and Dylan's recon mission, Tails was able to design it.

"Those who I assign after the meeting tonight will begin preparations for a rescue mission.  If we can capture Sonic and hold him here, we can work on the harmonizer to try to bring him back.  Tails and Rotor will continue work on the deroboticizer.  It needs to be finished as soon as possible, so we can free Sonic, and—"

"No," a low voice from the doorway interrupted.  Everyone turned to stare at the silhouette framed in the hall's entrance.  Moonlight from outside outlined a thin figure, dreadlocks hanging around narrow shoulders, spiked gloves fisted at its sides.  A roll of something was clenched in one hand.

Antoine stood, hand on his sword.  "What ees zee meaning of zees interruption?"

Sally held out a hand to stave off the coyote as the figure walked into the light of the room, red spines catching the glow of the lamps.  Violet eyes stared coolly at Antoine before drifting over to the princess.  "The harmonizer can't help him, Sally."

"What...what do you mean, Knuckles?"

The echidna held up the rolled sheets of plasfilm in his hand.  "I found this during the reconnaissance."  Spreading them on the table, he gestured to Sally.  "Have a look."

Sally leaned over the plasfilm—schematics, she noticed—and frowned.  "They're diagrams for another hedgehog robot.  Some of these pieces look just like Sonic's robotic form."  She ran the fingers of her bandaged hand over the outline of metallic quills on a figure, then blinked, recognizing the look.  "Robotnik's copying Sonic's robotic parts?"

Knuckles shook his head, quills swishing against each other.  "Look at the date on them."

Sally stared in shock.  "These...these are from fourteen years ago...."

Knuckles nodded slowly.  "Diagrams for a series of 'Speed Attack' units.  Apparently, Robotnik was building robots modeled after hedgehogs with the ability to move at very fast speeds.  I happened to find these in the junkyard, so as unlikely as it is, it seems Robotnik gave up the project."

"But what does this have to do with Sonic?" Rotor asked in his soft voice.

The Guardian regarded the walrus for a moment.  "We'd have to verify with Sir Charles, but I have a feeling that Sonic is one of these units."

Sally frowned.  "That's impossible.  I grew up with Sonic.  He's not a robot."

Knuckles pointed to a child-sized unit among the diagrams.  "That's why we have to consult Sir Charles."

Tails peered over at the diagrams.  "But, how could Robotnik make him a robot without putting him in the roboticizer?"

Knuckles paused before answering.  "All things tend toward chaos.  When a Mobian is made a robot, it's like giving it order.  Chaos tries to correct that, but we all know _that_ still requires some assistance."

"From our harmonizer, right?"

"Yes," Rotor replied softly.  "It shifts the balance in favor of chaos and brings the body back to the state it was meant to be in."

Knuckles nodded at the walrus.  "If a machine was built, similar to the roboticizer, but used instead to give a robot living flesh...."

Sally's sharp intake of breath interrupted Knuckles.  "Then a device like our harmonizer could be used to return it to its original robotic state."

"Exactly."

Sally immediately picked up Nicole—who ceased projection of the Robotropolis maps—and glanced over at Knuckles.  "Nicole, search the databases for any machines that can turn robots into Mobians."

The computer whirred and clicked for a few seconds before the feminine voice responded, "No entries found, Sally.  Such a device does not exist in Mobian records."  Sally frowned.

"We need to consult Sir Charles," the echidna stated again.  "He should know, since it was he who raised Sonic, and he who built the original roboticizer."

Sally nodded slowly, then closed Nicole.  "Knuckles and I will go to Robotropolis to speak with Sir Charles.  The rest of you will continue working on the harmonizer, even if it won't help Sonic."  Her eyes hardened as she firmed her resolve.  "Somehow, some way, we'll get Sonic back."

* * *

The junkyards were silent as the ground squirrel and the echidna approached the scrap heap that hid Uncle Chuck's hideaway.  Knuckles scanned the area cautiously, a vigilant bodyguard, as Sally tapped on the pipe.  The dark polluted clouds overhead churned with the occasional gust of wind, and a few patrol 'bots flew about, too high to be a serious threat.  None noticed the two living creatures in the shadows below.

After a few quiet moments, part of the scrap pile lifted as a hatch door opened, and Sally and Knuckles descended into the artificially lit workspace.

Sir Charles the Hedgehog sat at a workbench, the light from the humming fluorescent bulbs reflecting off of his metallic quills.  He turned dark red-in-black eyes to face the princess.  "What is it, Sally?"

Sally held up one of the schematic sheets.  "Sir Charles, I need you to explain this to me."

Uncle Chuck looked over the schematics for a bit.  After several moments of silence, he whispered, "Where did you get these?"

Sally glanced at Knuckles, who answered in an equally quiet voice.  "In one of the dumpsters.  I saw the edge of the first sheet sticking out from under a SWATbot helmet."

Uncle Chuck didn't respond.

"What do they mean, Sir Charles?" Sally asked.  "Why do they look so much like Sonic does now?"

Charles turned away from Sally, still holding the plastic sheets, and sighed.  "I hoped never to have to tell anyone, Sally.  Especially you or Sonic."

"Tell us what?" Sally asked with some exasperation.  Knuckles kept quiet.

"Please sit, Sally.  Knuckles."  Charles looked over the schematics again as Sally sat on a low metal bench.  Knuckles remained standing.  Uncle Chuck regarded the echidna for a moment before setting the plasfilm sheets down on his worktable.

"As I'm sure Knuckles has already guessed, Sonic is not my nephew.  He was originally a prototype for Robotnik's line of highly advanced attack 'bots.  They were designed to move fast, be nearly indestructible, and be his soldiers in the war against the Overlanders.  Fortunately, I discovered them while they were still in production.  There were three units built already, and a fourth in construction.  The first two were the size of adult Mobians, but the third and fourth were child-sized.  The adult-sized ones had already been programmed to obey Robotnik only, and I couldn't deprogram them.  Their software prevented it.  So I destroyed them, as well as the production of the fourth, unfinished unit.  I also took the schematics and erased the data files, but the third unit, SA-3, was still clean of programming.  Robotnik hadn't set its commands yet.  I took it with me, because I had a new device I wanted to test."

"New device?"  Sally raised an eyebrow, curious.

"Similar to my roboticizer.  It was an experiment to turn robotic creations into living things."

"But Nicole said there weren't any—"

"That's because there isn't anymore.  Turning the SA-3 unit—Sonic—into a living Mobian hedgehog overloaded the circuits, and rendered the machine useless.  I think it's because the machine not only turned the metal and circuitry into living flesh, it also managed to give him his heightened speed and a lot of his strength as well.  I dismantled the machine and got rid of all records of it, since it took too much to build in the first place.  I didn't want Robotnik to get his hands on it."

"But you kept Sonic."  Knuckles had folded his arms across his chest, one leg crossed over the other.

Charles nodded.  "Yes, I kept Sonic.  I gave him to Jules and Bernie to raise as their son, as my nephew, as a Mobian."  Uncle Chuck paused for a moment.  "But why are you asking me about this without Sonic?"

Sally looked at her feet then.  It was Knuckles who answered.

"Sonic is no longer with us."

"What do you mean?"  If a robot could look confused, Uncle Chuck was highly perplexed.

Knuckles shook his head slowly as he answered.  "Somehow he reverted to robot form, possibly as part of a reaction with the energy from the emeralds Robotnik is making.  Reports say he disappeared near that factory."

Uncle Chuck frowned deeply.  "Robotnik gave orders that none of the other roboticized Mobians were to go near that factory region...."

Sally interrupted them then, still looking at her feet.  "How...if he was a small robot when you made him a Mobian, how is it that S...Sonic's an adult-sized robot now?"

Charles shrugged.  "He grew.  Chaos adapted his robotic form.  It's like a chemical change as opposed to a physical change.  If you fold paper, you can still unfold it.  If you burn it, you can't un-burn it.  Sonic was a robot, and could be returned to robot form, but the change couldn't un-grow him.  So it adapted."

Sally frowned.  "Our harmonizer won't work on him, will it?"

"No, it won't.  He wasn't roboticized."  Charles paused, thinking.  "For lack of a better term, he was de-Mobianized."

"So how do we get him back then?"

Knuckles answered before Charles did.  "We rebuild the machine."

"I don't have the schematics anymore, Knuckles."  Charles sighed.

"So you make new ones.  Redesign it.  Improve it."

"I'm not sure that I can—"

"There's a walrus and a fox at Knothole who can help you.  We can get you parts."

Sally stared at Knuckles in shock for a few moments—as much surprised at the "we" as at Knuckles' initiative in encouraging Uncle Chuck—and nodded.  "We need Sonic back, Charles.  He's one of our best Freedom Fighters, and...he's our friend."

Knuckles snorted softly, but didn't say anything.

Charles thought, then nodded slowly.  "I'll come to Knothole tomorrow to help plan.  I can't promise that the machine will work, but I'll do my best."

Sally smiled sadly.  "Thank you, Charles."  She rose.  "We need to get going now.  We'll see you tomorrow."  With that, she and the Guardian took their leave.

Charles stared at the schematics in his hands for a while longer, then set them down on his worktable and took out a fresh drafting sheet and tools to begin plans.

* * *

_He hung, bleeding where the thought-threads had tightened and cut into his flesh, over the vast sea.  Sluggish trails of red oozed from beneath the bindings, trickling down through his fur, his quills, down his sides and fingertips and face.  It dripped into the void below, or trailed along the threads into darkness._

_He could see his hands to either side of him; somehow there was enough light for that, despite the all-encompassing blackness.  He could flex his hands and wiggle his fingers and actually see it.  Even now, he was watching his thread-sliced left hand with detached interest, using the sight of it and the blood against tan fur to focus his mind from the pain._

_The threads...they had tightened suddenly, wrapping to the point of breaking skin about his limbs, his torso, lashing at his face.  If the light could reach the inky sea below, he knew he would be able to see tan and blue fur and broken quills there._

_He knew why the threads had attacked.  The voices had come then too, the deep voice, and the high voice, and a mechanical voice that pierced his core...and among it all, underneath and above and in and around, his own voice.  Demanding.  Interrogating him for knowledge.  Some he did not know.  Others he knew but would not tell, would never tell the demonized voice that sounded so much like his own, hissing for it._

_And as the voices clamored, energy rippled through him.  Electric, chaotic, he knew not.  But it made the threads tighten their grip and made him bleed.  In the end, he had lost consciousness to it._

_But it didn't break him, could not break him._

_Yet._

_He had kept his knowledge that much longer, at least.  They were safe._

_Whoever "they" were._

_The blackness of the void around him made it difficult to think for too long._

_He traced patterns in the air with his fingertips, watching a ghostly afterimage of his fingers against the neverending darkness._

_He thought of another's hand, reaching out for his.  Petite, brown-furred.  A pair of azure eyes.  But when he tried to focus on the rest of that Other, it faded from his mind.  Gone, like a breath of air, or the trailing images of his fingers._

_The form of a metal hand, clawed, appeared over his, and he clenched his fist and closed his eyes tightly, firmly.  Not again.  The sight was coming along more often now, often accompanied by flashes of scenery, a filthy, cold city he knew he should recognize and couldn't.  Faces, too many faces, all faces he instinctively hated and could do nothing about.  The voices...._

_A memory._

_He was in a garden somewhere, playing tag with a girl he knew, a girl with azure eyes and red hair and soft brown fur.  A girl he knew he loved to tease.  A girl whose name he could not remember, who spoke words to him he could not hear.  Words he knew where his own name...but he could not remember that either.  Not at the moment, with the void's blackness lapping at the edges of his mind, making his thoughts sluggish and difficult._

_There was a man there, tall—for one of their kind—with a crown...the girl's father.  And a taller man, round, with dark eyes and a deep voice.  He knew that man.  It was the same man whose voice reached into his waking thoughts and demanded information._

_And then he and the girl left the round man and the crowned man for another garden, another place to play.  And a hedgehog, and a dog...._

_Pain shuddered through him briefly, and he felt the tiniest of connections, the merest sensations that he instinctively knew would only get stronger.  Wherever he floated, wherever this blackness was where he was held bound, his own body was moving._

_He didn't want to think about it.  Didn't want to know what his body was doing._

_He retreated to the memory-dream, as around him his own demonic voice laughed and mocked his weakness, his cowardice._

_And within the memory, flames rose._

_He slipped into darkness again, a whispered name on his lips like a shout in the void._

_"Sally...."_

-----

A/N:  Um.  ^_^;;;  I apologize right now to anyone who might complain about my characterization of Knuckles.  This is how I see him, 'kay?

First, to blizzard4, there you go.  That's how.

Sanzo, gloat all you want, I don't know that my other readers will let it get to them.  ::shrug::  ^_^  But I'm glad you're still liking it.

Outcasts, I'll have to stop eventually, you know.  When I get to the end and all.  But I'm glad you're enjoying it.  ^_^

To all of my readers: thanks for sticking with it!  You guys give fanfic writing the extra kick for the author (despite the fact that I'd finish this even if I had absolutely 0 reviews).

So we have a Robotnik scene.  Then the two middle scenes with Knux and Sally, which should answer some questions (like blizzard4's), and finally...er...more me-being-random-with-italics-on stuff at the end there.

Art scene's kinda' slow right now, due to messes around the computer, but I've got the roughs drawn for some StH artwork, including a couple pieces related to this fic, and hope to have at least some of it up sooner than later to show you guys.  ^_^

Sonic fanart (as well as other artwork) can be found at **ah-kaziya.deviantart.com**


	9. Chapter 8: Plans

Falling Into Darkness 

Chapter 8: Plans

_-----_

Sally looked up from the maps and diagrams before her when Tails buzzed into the center of town, panting and sweating under the midday sun.  He leaned against the wooden trestle table that sat in front of Sally, catching his breath, then gasped out, "It's Uncle Chuck.  He's coming down the slide."

"Thank you, Tails."  Sally gathered the papers together and patted his head.  "Why don't you go see what Rosie has for you to drink?"

Tails nodded and jogged off to the cafeteria building as Sally tucked her papers away in her satchel and waited for Uncle Chuck to meet her.

He came shortly, his metal feet making a slight clanking noise against the cobblestones of the main thoroughfare.  He waved cheerfully to several villagers, who waved back and called out greetings.  He even paused briefly to fix a small problem with a child's toy airplane.  Sally smiled and waited, wishing this moment could be just a normal visit with friends.

But it couldn't.  Not with Mecha-Sonic working for Robotnik.  Not with their best Freedom Fighter gone.

Chuck handed the airplane back to the child and walked the last few paces to stand before Sally.  He simply nodded and said, "Hello, Sally," before Sally gave him a firm hug.

"Knuckles is waiting for us over by the chao garden.  Rotor's at his workshop, getting parts together.  Did you bring the plans?"

Chuck patted the metal plate on his belly.  "Right here, Sally.  Here's hoping this'll work."

Sally nodded.  "It _has_ to."  And without another word, she turned and headed toward the garden.

They found Knuckles standing by the pond, Angel sitting on his left foot with its stubby arms around his leg.  The echidna watched Frost paddle around in the pond with a handful of other swimming chao.

"Why," he asked, as Sally and Chuck joined him at the pond's edge, "does a hedgehog who can't swim own a _swimming_ chao?"

Chuck suppressed a laugh as Sally answered.  "Because those were all the chaos drives he could find when he was raising Frost."  She paused for a moment.  "Ready, Knuckles?"

"I'm not very good at mechanical stuff, you know."

"I know."

"I might make something blow up."

"I doubt it."

"Or break something."

"Would you just come already?"

He glanced at her in surprise at her tone, blinking when he realized she was teasing him.  Or trying to.  It kept her mind off of Sonic, and what had happened....

"Fine, fine."  He sighed, pried Angel off of his leg, and gestured for her to lead the way.

Rotor's workshop lay somewhat apart from the rest of the village, beneath a stand of tall pines and oaks.  It was more for the protection of the other houses and the village children, than to isolate Rotor.  Things were known to go wrong with some of Rotor's inventions, and concerned parents certainly didn't want their young playing around with volatile robots, experimental megamuck, and a wide array of gas bombs.  The windows were few, small and shuttered because a few of Rotor's experiments were very light-sensitive, and the roof was patched over many times with newer shingles that stood out against the old, faded wooden planks.  There were also one or two newer patches in the plaster where the walls had had a run-in with a small explosive.

Tails met them at the door, swishing his twin tails anxiously and sipping the juice bottle Rosie had apparently given him.  He waved to Uncle Chuck  as the three older Mobians approached and opened the door to the smallish building.  "They're here, Rotor!" he called into the workroom.

Sally rubbed Tails' head, despite his annoyed look at being treated like a child, and led Knuckles and Uncle Chuck in.  "What have we got so far, Rotor?"

The walrus stood from where he'd been sorting through a bin of scrap parts and dusted off his hands.  "Well, Sally, we've got all the spare parts we could find around here...even some of the ones that we thought were useless.  I'm not sure what Uncle Chuck needs for this mobianizer of his...."

Uncle Chuck opened the compartment in his stomach and pulled out the rolled up plasfilm plans, spreading them out on the worktable.  "Here are the schematics, Rotor.  I've tweaked a few things from the original design I had, and most of the parts are cosmetic.  Any scrap metal will do for most of this.  I don't know if you have one of these, though."  He pointed to a few detailed diagrams of a smaller part.  "It's more delicate.  Shouldn't be made out of just any old parts."

Rotor frowned.  "I don't have one of those, Uncle Chuck.  Where's the best place we can find one?"

Chuck sighed.  "Robotropolis, of course.  The factories near the roboticizer have the parts we need to make one of these.  Though, it's the kind of mission _Sonic_ would usually run—"

"I'll do it."

All eyes turned to stare at Knuckles—willingly volunteering for a mission!—who simply shrugged and looked indifferently at nothing in particular.  "What?  You need someone who can get in and get out without much of a fuss."

Sally was first to respond.  "You're going as part of a team, Knuckles."

"I—"

"No 'buts.'  We're in this to help Sonic together.  I'll go organize a team.  Uncle Chuck, make up a list of what parts we need exactly and give it to Knuckles.  Rotor, Tails, get started on putting that machine together."  Pulling out Nicole and flipping the microcomputer open, she turned on her heel and started out.

Knuckles followed her out to Rotor's porch, fully intending to protest again.  He was caught off guard when Sally glanced back at him, one tiny tear in her eye, and whispered, "Thank you."

He simply frowned.

"Hn."

-----

A/N:  ::ducks tomatoes::  I know, I know.  Such a long wait, and then _that_'s what I leave you with?  Pitiful me.  ::sheepish grin, rubs back of head::

Short.  Terse.  To the point.

Basically, a chapter to write so I'd have something up, to get me in the writing mood again, to carry some action over into the next scene (and give a reason for it too).  Lots of dialogue.  Very little description (except for Rotor's hut, which I added in the middle of typing these author's notes).  I'll make the next scene better, I promise.

So why the delay?  College, work, a guy I like, my webmanga, children's stories for class, art to work on, a novel I'm working on, an RM2K project, site redesigns....  ::falls over::  The list goes on....

::stares at the Word Document of "Falling Into Darkness"::  33 pages as of the end of this chapter....

To address some recent (or not so recent) comments:

**Dr. Sipp:**  I know Sega created the Chaotix, but Archie uses them a lot.  I've never played the Chaotix game, so my biggest knowledge of the Chaotix (what little there is of it) comes from Archie.  So that's the Chaotix I'm going to exclude for this fic.

**Orin:**  Let me start by saying that "Winterheart," along with Outcasts' "Metamorphosis," is probably what inspired me most to actually start this fic.  I came up with the original idea waaaaay back in middle school after having a plot very much like this (I've tweaked it for story purposes) feature in one of the saner dreams I've had.  I have very weird dreams, let me tell you.  Mostly the whole "Sonic used to be a robot but was turned Mobian somehow, and recently changed back and stuff" idea.  Yeah.

::pulls a hat on over brain::  You sure the bendy straw won't hurt?

Glad you liked Knux.  ^_^  ::bounces::  And sure, you can be my fangirl, if I can be yours.  And...::reads review again::..."lickable" or "likeable"?  O.o

**Everyone and Anyone Else, because you all matter:**  Thanks for reading, and thanks for the wonderful reviews!

In case you can't tell from this and previous chapters, I've done some redesigning for Knothole.  I added the chao garden, because I wanted to add the chao element from the more recent games and Sonic X.  I may have gotten the descriptions of Sonic's "pad" and Rotor's workshop a bit off, but bear in mind, I haven't seen the SatAM version of Sonic the Hedgehog since I was in middle school (around 96-97ish), outside of the low-low-low-low-quality Real Media versions of the episodes (can't find them on eBay, either).  So I'm pulling what I can from memory and making the rest up as I go.  What I see in my mind most of the time is the SatAM Knothole, with elements from Archie thrown in.

Toward the end of the summer and early on in the school year, I bought a bunch of backissues of the Archie comics and started up a subscription, so you may see more influences from that showing up.  Not the Knuckles arc stuff, though.  I like him as a loner.

For those who care, I'm raising Ember, Frost, and Angel in the gardens on my Dreamcast.  They're cute.  I'll have to draw them at some point.  ^_^

Blargh.  I still need to do art for this fic.  But then, I need to finish the other backed-up art I need to do.  Like those two art trades....  ::sweatdrop::

Don't worry, folks!  While I may have rather long delays between chapters in this, I won't stop!  Not until it's reached a conclusion!  And then, of course, you can anticipate other fics from me (though not all of them StH).

And now, to bed with me.

::passes out::


End file.
